Vista - Help! cannot save files in Word!

Hi!
I am new to this forum, but recent difficulties have driven me here.
For some reason, whenever I go to save a document in Microsoft word, the "save as" box will pop up as usual, but where it would normally show my the contents of my documents folder there is absolutely nothing! Just blank space! And it will give me the "busy" cursor like its trying to load, but it never will and if I click anything it just goes to "not Responding" and I have to close it! This also happens if I try to open a file. Not just with word either, its all of my programs.

So basically, it is crashing whenever a program tries to access "my documents," which is usually the standard folder that opens whenever you go to "save as" etc.

This used to happen online too, but now that works for some reason but it still doesnt work offline. I thought installing "vista service pack" would help so I did that this morning but its still crashing.

If anyone knows any way I can fix this it would be much appreciated.

-peace